Articles & Analysis

Week of 2026-W36

Business Post Weekly Intelligence Briefing | Business Post

Business Post Weekly Intelligence Briefing

Week of 31 August – 6 September 2026: The stories that shaped Irish business this week, enriched with official records

Source: ARTICLES | Period: 2026-08-31 to 2026-09-06

Weekly Intelligence Briefing | 31 August – 6 September 2026

Ireland's AI Week: A $3.6bn Exit, a US Banking Licence, and a €6.6bn Energy Sale — All in Seven Days

The week of 31 August to 6 September 2026 delivered a concentrated burst of Irish business news that would normally take a quarter to accumulate. Fin's $3.6 billion Salesforce acquisition — the largest Irish tech exit on record — landed alongside Revolut's conditional US banking charter and DCC's €6.6 billion energy sale gaining advisory firm backing. Beneath the headline deals, a quieter but equally significant story was unfolding: Ireland's GDP grew 10.2% in Q2 2026, corporate tax receipts surged 33% year-on-year in August, and yet the domestic economy contracted 0.8% in the same quarter — a reminder that Ireland's headline numbers and lived economic reality remain stubbornly disconnected.

$3.6bn

Fin / Salesforce deal — Ireland's biggest tech exit ever

€6.6bn

DCC Energy sale to KKR — shareholder vote imminent

10.2%

Irish GDP growth Q2 2026 — multinational-driven

€17.8bn

Corporate tax YTD — up 8.3% on 2025

285

Business Post articles published this week

By the Numbers

Metric	Value	Signal
Fin (Intercom) revenue	$339.6m	+19.9% YoY
Fin pre-tax losses	$90.1m	+257.5% YoY
Irish GDP Q2 2026	+10.2%	Multinational-driven
Modified domestic demand Q2	-0.8%	Domestic contraction
Corporate tax August YoY	+33%	15% global min rate feeding through
Total tax take YTD	€66.3bn	+3.4% vs 2025
Revolut global customers	80m+	US bank launch 2027
Euronext Dublin listed firms	25	Down from 70 in 2007

  Business Post AI Pick: The GDP Paradox
  Ireland's headline GDP of +10.2% in Q2 2026 is the kind of number that makes international headlines — but the more honest measure, modified domestic demand, fell 0.8% in the same period. The divergence is driven by multinational sector activity (Apple, Eli Lilly and peers) which expanded 11.2% in Q2. For Irish businesses and workers, the economy is growing more slowly than the headline suggests. Business Post's coverage of the CSO data captures this tension clearly: Tánaiste Simon Harris welcomed the figures while simultaneously flagging "additional challenges" from rising sovereign debt yields.

Pattern of the Week: Ireland's AI Moment Three stories this week converge on a single theme: Ireland is becoming a node in the global AI economy, not just a host for its infrastructure. Fin's Salesforce exit validates Irish-founded AI product companies. Revolut's US banking charter shows Dublin-registered fintechs can compete globally. And Dublin AI Week — 35+ free events across the capital — signals a maturing ecosystem. The question is whether this week's exits and milestones translate into the next generation of Irish-founded companies, or whether the talent and capital flows outward.

The Investigation: Deals, Exits, and the Shrinking Irish Stock Exchange

Over the past seven days, Business Post coverage was dominated by three overlapping themes: the acceleration of Irish tech exits and global deal-making; a macro-economic picture that flatters Ireland's headline numbers while masking domestic weakness; and a slow-motion crisis on Euronext Dublin, where the listed company count has fallen from 70 in 2007 to just 25 today. The absence of insolvency stories this week — zero receivership or liquidation articles found — is itself a signal: Irish corporate distress is not the story right now. The story is consolidation, exit, and the question of what comes next.

Story	Value / Scale	Theme	Signal
Fin / Salesforce deal	$3.6bn acquisition	M&A / Tech	Record Irish exit
DCC Energy sale to KKR	€6.6bn	M&A / Energy	ISS & Glass Lewis support
Revolut US bank charter	80m+ customers	Fintech / Regulatory	OCC conditional approval
Nvidia acquires Hugging Face	$13bn	AI / Global M&A	AI consolidation wave
Irish GDP Q2 2026	+10.2% / MDD -0.8%	Macro / Economy	Domestic divergence
Corporate tax surge	€17.8bn YTD	Fiscal / Tax	+33% August YoY
Donegal Investment Group delisting	Euronext Dublin: 25 firms	Markets / Governance	Reverse takeover deadline
BAM / NCH dispute	€100m claim rejected	Legal / Construction	Conciliator ruling

Sector Breakdown: Where Business Post Coverage Concentrated This Week

Technology & AI

~85 articles

Markets & Finance

~65 articles

Energy & Infrastructure

~40 articles

Property & Development

~32 articles

Politics & Fiscal

~28 articles

Companies & Corporate

~20 articles

Top Reporters This Week

Reporter	Articles	Primary Beat
Emma Hanrahan	125	Global markets, AI, tech, US economy
Matthew Joyce	25	Irish macro, energy, DCC, fiscal
Vish Gain	18	Banking, fintech, Revolut, investment
Rónán Casey	16	Markets, AI policy, Anthropic
Tina-Marie O'Neill	13	Property, commercial real estate
Charlie Taylor	8	Irish tech, Fin/Intercom, Dublin AI Week

Read All 285 Articles →

The Connections: What the Official Record Adds to the Week's Stories

Business Post articles are the starting point. The official record — CRO filings, property registers, court databases — is where the stories deepen. This week, cross-referencing the week's biggest stories against official data reveals a pattern: Ireland's most significant corporate actors are structured to minimise public disclosure, operate across multiple jurisdictions, and hold assets through holding companies whose registered capital bears no relationship to the value of the businesses they control. That's not a criticism; it's a structural observation with real implications for investors, creditors, and policymakers.

Fin / Salesforce: The Irish Exit That Isn't on the CRO Business Post reported that Fin (formerly Intercom), founded by Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciarán Lee, and David Barrett, has been acquired by Salesforce for $3.6 billion — the largest Irish tech acquisition on record. Revenue grew 19.9% to $339.6m, but pre-tax losses surged 257.5% to $90.1m as the company invested heavily in its AI pivot. Salesforce expects Fin to contribute a $200m revenue uplift in fiscal 2027. The CRO reality: no direct Irish-registered entity for Fin was found in our search — the company operates primarily as a US-incorporated entity, consistent with the pattern of Irish-founded tech companies that incorporate in Delaware for US venture capital access. The founders are Irish; the company is not. This is the structural story behind Ireland's tech ecosystem: world-class founders, but the corporate and tax substance often sits elsewhere.

Revolut's Dublin Footprint: Two Entities, One Address, One Ambition Business Post reported that Revolut Bank UAB has received conditional OCC approval for a US national bank charter — a milestone that will allow it to offer FDIC-insured deposits, loans, and credit cards to American customers from 2027. CRO records show Revolut maintains two Dublin-registered entities: Revolut Bank UAB (registered May 2022) and Revolut Ltd (registered January 2022), both at 2 Dublin Landings, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1. With 80 million customers globally, Revolut's Dublin address is not just a regulatory convenience — it is the legal anchor for a company that is now one of the world's most valuable fintechs. The US charter, once finalised, will make Revolut the first Dublin-headquartered company to hold a US national banking licence.

Kirby Group Engineering: The Limerick Firm Powering the Global Data Center Boom Business Post reported that Kirby Group Engineering is doubling its South Africa workforce to over 110 staff, opening a second Cape Town office. The company serves data centers, life sciences, industrial, power, and renewables sectors. CRO records reveal the parent entity — Kirby Mechanical Unlimited Company (company number 57024) — was originally incorporated in 1976 as R. O'Malley Limited, renamed Kirby Mechanical Limited in 2006, and re-registered as an unlimited company in 2014. The unlimited structure means the company's accounts are not publicly available at the CRO — a common choice for family-owned Irish engineering firms that want to keep financial details private. Directors James Kirby (since 2004) and Donal Lynch (since May 2024) lead the company from Raheen Business Park, Limerick. The Africa expansion is part of a broader internationalisation strategy serving the global data center construction wave.

NBI Spin-Off Write-Off: The Broadband Ecosystem's Quiet Failure Business Post reported that Asterion Industrial Partners, a Spanish investment firm, has written off its €6.7 million stake in X3T Broadband, an Irish tech firm spun out of National Broadband Ireland (NBI). X3T is chaired by David McCourt, who also leads the state's €2.7bn rural broadband rollout. Asterion's holding in NBI itself is unaffected. The write-off is a reminder that spin-off ventures from state infrastructure projects carry significant execution risk — and that the NBI project, despite its scale, has not yet generated the commercial ecosystem around it that its architects envisaged. Watch for further NBI-adjacent corporate activity as the rollout approaches completion.

The Radar: Three Signals Worth Watching

AI Consolidation Accelerating: Three Mega-Deals in One Week Nvidia's $13bn acquisition of Hugging Face, combined with its recent $20bn Groq deal and $6bn Poolside licence, signals that the AI infrastructure layer is consolidating rapidly around a handful of dominant players. For Irish companies — particularly those in data center construction like Kirby Group Engineering — this consolidation means more concentrated, higher-value clients with longer-term infrastructure commitments. Watch for: further AI infrastructure M&A in Q4 2026, and the downstream effect on Irish data center planning applications.

Savings & Investment Accounts: A New Battleground for Irish Retail Finance Taoiseach Micheál Martin's Budget 2027 announcement of new Savings and Investment Accounts (SIAs) has triggered a race among platforms to capture Irish retail investors. Revolut, eToro, Trading212, and Lightyear have all confirmed they will offer SIAs. The pillar banks (AIB, Bank of Ireland) are expected to follow. The addressable market is contested: the €170bn in Irish household deposits is often cited, but analysts at Goodbody estimate the realistic target is €20-30bn. Watch for: the final SIA regulations, which will determine whether Irish startups and SMEs can access this capital pool.

Public Sector Pay: A Formula That Could Cost €1bn+ Business Post's investigation into the public sector pay talks reveals that Forsa, led by Kevin Callinan, is demanding a formula-based indexation mechanism that would link public sector pay to inflation annually. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council estimates a 4% pay increase would cost over €1 billion. With Budget 2027 approaching and the government already under pressure on spending, this is the domestic fiscal risk that the headline GDP numbers obscure. Watch for: the outcome of pay talks in October, which will set the tone for public finances in 2027.

The Deep Dive: Kirby Group Engineering — The Limerick Firm That Quietly Became a Global Player

This week's deep dive focuses on one company: Kirby Group Engineering, the Limerick-based mechanical and electrical engineering firm that Business Post reported is doubling its South Africa workforce to over 110 staff. Kirby is the kind of company that rarely makes headlines — it doesn't have a stock market listing, it doesn't publish accounts, and its parent company is structured as an unlimited company specifically to avoid public disclosure. But the CRO record, combined with Business Post's reporting, reveals a company that has quietly become one of Ireland's most significant engineering exporters, riding the global data center and renewables construction wave.

Kirby Mechanical Unlimited Company — 50 Years Old, Still Expanding

Kirby Mechanical Unlimited Company (CRO number 57024) was incorporated on 9 November 1976 as R. O'Malley Limited — a Galway-based engineering firm. It was renamed Kirby Mechanical Limited in 2006 when the Kirby family took full control, and re-registered as an unlimited company in 2014. The unlimited structure is significant: it means the company is not required to file publicly accessible accounts at the CRO. For a family-owned engineering firm competing for large data center and life sciences contracts, keeping revenue and margin data private is a competitive advantage. The company is based at Raheen Business Park, Co. Limerick — the same industrial park that hosts a cluster of life sciences and engineering firms serving the broader Limerick region.

Metric	Detail	Signal
CRO Number	57024	Unlimited Company
Incorporated	9 November 1976	50-year heritage
Original Name	R. O'Malley Limited	Family succession
Re-registered Unlimited	2014	No public accounts
Registered Address	Raheen Business Park, Co. Limerick	Regional HQ
Current Directors	James Kirby (since 2004), Donal Lynch (since May 2024)	New director 2024
Secretary	Derry McMahon (since 2010)	Long-tenure management
Auditor	CA2457818	Consistent auditor

Reading Between the Lines: What the Unlimited Structure Tells Us Kirby Mechanical's decision to re-register as an unlimited company in 2014 — the same year the Companies Act 2014 was being finalised — was a deliberate choice to remove its accounts from public view. The company's auditor (CA2457818) has been consistent across multiple filings, suggesting a stable, long-term relationship with its accounting firm. The appointment of Donal Lynch as a new director in May 2024 — replacing Derry McMahon who had been a director since 2006 — is the most significant governance change in a decade. Lynch is based in Raheen, Limerick, suggesting a local operational appointment rather than an external hire. The Africa expansion, doubling headcount to 110+ in South Africa, is consistent with a company that has been quietly internationalising for several years. Kirby now serves data centers, life sciences, industrial, power, and renewables sectors across multiple continents.

The question for Kirby's 2025 accounts: with the global data center construction boom showing no signs of slowing — and AI capex driving a new wave of hyperscale investment — has the company's South Africa expansion already generated enough revenue to justify a second Cape Town office, or is this a bet on future demand that will take 18-24 months to pay off?

Key People This Period

Name	Role	Notable Activity	Connections
Eoghan McCabe	Co-founder/CEO, Fin	Led $3.6bn Salesforce acquisition; AI pivot architect	Fin / Salesforce deal
Jimmy Kirby	CEO, Kirby Group Engineering	Doubling South Africa workforce to 110+; second Cape Town office	Kirby Mechanical ULC
James Kirby	Director, Kirby Mechanical ULC	CRO director since 2004; parent company governance	Kirby Mechanical ULC (57024)
Geoffrey Vance	Chair, Donegal Investment Group	Overseeing delisting delay; reverse takeover search by Feb 2027	Euronext Dublin delisting
Nik Storonsky	CEO, Revolut	US bank charter conditional OCC approval; 80m+ customers	Revolut Bank UAB, Revolut Ltd
Simon Harris	Tánaiste & Minister for Finance	Welcomed GDP +10.2%; announced Savings & Investment Accounts	Irish GDP Q2 2026
Kevin Callinan	General Secretary, Forsa	Demanding pay indexation formula; potential industrial action	Public sector pay talks
Micheál Martin	Taoiseach	Budget 2027: income tax cuts, energy measures, SIAs	Budget 2027 pledges

One to Watch: Kirby Mechanical Unlimited Company

Kirby Mechanical Unlimited Company

CRO: 57024 | Raheen Business Park, Co. Limerick | Mechanical & Electrical Engineering | Auditor: CA2457818 | Incorporated: 09/11/1976

Metric	Detail
Company Type	ULC (Private Unlimited — no public accounts)
Sectors Served	Data centers, life sciences, industrial, power, renewables
International Presence	Ireland, UK, South Africa (Cape Town x2 offices)
South Africa Headcount	110+ (doubled in 2026)
Directors	James Kirby (2004–), Donal Lynch (May 2024–)
Previous Names	R. O'Malley Limited (1976), Kirby Mechanical Limited (2006)

Kirby Group Engineering is the operating brand of Kirby Mechanical Unlimited Company, a Limerick-based mechanical and electrical engineering firm that has been quietly building a global presence since the 1970s. The company delivers complex M&E engineering projects for data centers, pharmaceutical plants, and renewable energy infrastructure across Ireland, the UK, and increasingly Africa.

Why it matters: Kirby is the kind of company that Business Post readers rarely encounter in the headlines — but it is exactly the type of Irish engineering firm that is benefiting most from the global AI infrastructure buildout. Every hyperscale data center requires hundreds of millions in M&E engineering work. Kirby's decision to double its South Africa workforce in 2026 is not a charity project; it is a calculated bet that the data center construction wave will reach Africa within the next three to five years. The company's unlimited structure means we cannot verify its revenue — but the expansion trajectory tells its own story.

The number that matters: 110+ — the number of Kirby employees in South Africa after the 2026 expansion. For a Limerick-based engineering firm, maintaining a 110-person operation in Cape Town represents a significant commitment of capital and management bandwidth. Watch for: Kirby's next geographic expansion announcement, and whether the company eventually re-registers as a limited company to access public capital markets.

The Broader Picture: Courts, Property, and the Week Ahead

The Irish Courts

No new judgments were delivered in the week of 31 August to 6 September 2026 that are indexed in the courts database — a reflection of the summer recess period rather than any absence of corporate legal activity. The most relevant recent case for business readers remains the High Court's June 2025 ruling in Downtul Limited [In Liquidation] v Companies Act, which addressed corporate governance failures, Revenue Commissioners obligations, and director responsibility in the context of a company liquidation. For any director of an Irish company, the Downtul case is a reminder that the courts take seriously the obligation to file tax returns and maintain proper books — even when a company is in financial difficulty. The BAM / National Children's Hospital dispute, reported by Business Post this week, is a live commercial dispute that may yet reach the courts: BAM's €100m compensation claim was rejected by a conciliator, but the contractor retains the right to challenge the decision in court.

Citation	Parties	Subject	Why It Matters
[2025] IEHC 358	Downtul Limited [In Liquidation] v Companies Act	Corporate governance, liquidation, Revenue obligations	Director responsibility for tax filings; governance failures in liquidation
[2024] IEHC 738	Barclays Bank Ireland PLC v Companies Act 2014	Corporate restructuring, cross-border business transfer	Relevant to financial services restructuring; Barclays transferring business to BAWAG PSK
Pending	BAM v National Children's Hospital (potential)	Construction contract dispute, €100m compensation claim	Conciliator rejected BAM's claim; court challenge possible on €2.2bn+ project

Construction Watch: The NCH Dispute Has Further to Run Business Post reported that BAM's €100m compensation claim for extra costs on the National Children's Hospital has been rejected by a conciliator. The hospital is expected to cost more than €2.2 billion to complete — a figure that has grown from an original estimate of €983m. BAM can still challenge the conciliator's ruling in court. For the construction sector, the NCH dispute is a cautionary tale about the risks of fixed-price contracts on complex public infrastructure projects. Watch for: any court filing by BAM in Q4 2026, and the final cost estimate for the hospital when it opens.

Property Markets & Plans

The Irish property market continues to operate at elevated prices, with the ESRI finding this week that residential prices are overvalued by 17% relative to economic fundamentals — though the institute noted this is "materially lower" than pre-2008 levels. In Dublin, 685 residential transactions were recorded in August 2026, with an average price of €611,797 and a median of €460,797. The commercial property market is showing signs of recovery: prime office rents are forecast to rise 6% over the next 12 months, according to Business Post's commercial property analysis. On the planning front, Ardstone secured planning permission for a revised 562-home scheme at Milltown Park, Dublin 6 — the third planning approval for the site after two previous permissions were challenged in court.

Property / Location	Type	Price / Detail	Significance
Kilmore House, Spencer Dock, IFSC, Dublin 1	Commercial (office floors)	€1.47m (Aug 7)	IFSC commercial activity; 6th, 4th & lower ground floors
Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1	Commercial (ground floor)	€165k (Aug 28)	City centre retail/commercial unit
Milltown Park, Sandford Road, Dublin 6	Residential planning	562 homes approved	Ardstone's third planning approval; 556 apartments + 6 houses
Dublin residential market (August 2026)	Residential	Avg €611,797 / Median €460,797	685 transactions; ESRI finds 17% overvaluation
Cork residential market (August 2026)	Residential	Avg €361,577 / Median €345,000	235 transactions; 41% cheaper than Dublin average

The Week Ahead

The week of 31 August to 6 September 2026 will be remembered as the week Ireland's AI economy came of age — at least in terms of headline deals. The $3.6bn Fin exit, the €6.6bn DCC energy sale, and Revolut's US banking charter are not isolated events; they are the culmination of years of investment, regulatory navigation, and strategic positioning by Irish-founded and Dublin-based companies. The macro backdrop is more complex: GDP growth of 10.2% masks a domestic economy that contracted in Q2, and corporate tax receipts that are growing fast but remain dangerously concentrated in a small number of multinational payers. The public sector pay talks, Budget 2027 preparations, and the ongoing energy transition are the domestic policy stories that will shape the next quarter.

  The Bottom Line
  Ireland is generating extraordinary headline numbers — $3.6bn tech exits, 10.2% GDP growth, €17.8bn in corporate tax — but the structural questions remain unanswered: why do Ireland's most successful tech founders incorporate in Delaware rather than Dublin? Why does Euronext Dublin have only 25 listed companies? Why does the domestic economy contract even as the headline grows? The week's stories are a celebration of Irish business talent; the official records are a reminder of the structural work still to be done.

What to Watch:

The DCC Energy shareholder vote is due within two weeks — the €6.6bn deal is on track but not yet done. The Anthropic IPO is expected to file paperwork imminently, which will test whether AI company valuations can hold in public markets. The public sector pay talks will reach a critical juncture in October, with the potential for industrial action if the government does not shift on the indexation formula. And Revolut's US banking journey has only just begun: conditional OCC approval is the first of several regulatory hurdles before the company can open for business in America in 2027.